The development of home networks to distribute video content digitally presents new problems to system designers seeking to integrate the control of multiple devices in the home. An early example is the use of coaxial cable to distribute analog video content throughout a home. Although it was relatively easy to connect multiple televisions to a common video source such as a VCR located in a different room, the standard remote controls for the VCR would not allow a homeowner to directly control a remotely located VCR from the room where the TV was located, which is where the operator typically would desire to view the video. In prior analog systems, remote control of a source not located in the room where the content was played was accomplished with either UHF radio remote controls (an uncommon solution for home equipment and susceptible to interference from neighbors) or more typically with the use of infrared repeaters that would collect IR control signals in a given room and then either retransmit them by bouncing them down a hallway, send them by a dedicated wired connection to the program source, or retransmit the signals using radio waves, again suffering interference from other radio sources. All of these techniques require additional dedicated components and wiring making their installation relatively expensive.
There are also significant differences from control schemes using dedicated “home run” wiring. Usually, dedicated wiring control schemes must be wired from box-to-box separately from the wires used to carry the analog video/audio signal. The control wires can be used ONLY to carry command information. Dedicated wiring control schemes are proprietary and do not work with all IR remote controls (e.g., SONY S-link). They are usually based on decoding the IR signal, and only sending the control word. The invention described here does not require decoding the IR signal, but rather works by reconstructing the IR signal at the central box.
There are control schemes based on 1394 networks, however, they rely upon one box controlling another through known control word protocols, and do not seem capable of sending and reconstructing the original IR signal. As such, they do not work with existing IR remote controls, or existing A/V equipment. The invention disclosed here operates with existing A/V equipment, and it makes use of the home network and remote/central boxes to receive, communicate on home network, and finally reconstruct the original IR remote control signal, allowing for highly flexible control with a minimum of additional wiring while preserving the homeowner's investment in pre-existing A/V sources and displays.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional home A/V control approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.